Saturday, January 23, 2016

National Review, the bulwark of conservative journalism and opinion for 50 years, has, after months of jabs, finally taken off the gloves in its fight against the candidacy of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.

With a cover reading simply “Against Trump” and listing well-known conservative contributors like Glenn Beck, William Kristol and Edwin Meese III, the journal founded by William F. Buckley pulled no punches in its attempt to stop the billionaire’s populist campaign.

Led by an editorial, NR warns, “Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”

Calling Trump “a huckster,” they nevertheless cede some credit to him for exposing the disconnect between the Washington GOP and the grassroots. In a warning to conservatives, the editors write, “If they cannot advance a compelling working-class agenda, the legitimate anxieties and discontents of blue-collar voters will be exploited by demagogues.

We sympathize with many of the complaints of Trump supporters about the GOP, but that doesn’t make the mogul any less flawed a vessel for them.”

The editorial’s conclusion is unambiguous is its condemnation of both Trump and those conservatives who’ve expressed support or even embraced him:

Some conservatives have made it their business to make excuses for Trump and duly get pats on the head from him. Count us out. Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself.

In a separate piece in the magazine’s February 15th issue, NR has compiled short essays from 22 commentators, many of whom are conservative leaders.

Radio host Glenn Beck called Trump’s ascension “a crisis for conservatism,” while Weekly Standard editor William Kristol asks, “Isn’t Trumpism a two-bit Caesarism of a kind that American conservatives have always disdained? Isn’t the task of conservatives today to stand athwart Trumpism, yelling Stop?”

Ed Meese, former attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, laments that in a field of strong candidates with solid credentials of leadership, the rise of Trump meant “the political atmosphere is polluted by the vicious personal attacks” rather than a debate of ideas.

Meese concluded, “At a time when the nation is suffering under one of the most divisive and incompetent presidents in history, our people need positive, unifying leadership, not negative, destructive political rhetoric.”

Nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas sees the anger of Trump supporters, admitting much of it is justified. However, he concludes, “Anger is not policy. Trump channels a lot of the righteous (and some of the unrighteous) anger of voters and sees the solution as himself. Isn’t a narcissist what we currently have in the White House?”

For his part, Trump responded how he has throughout so much of this campaign — via Twitter.

National Review responded by reminding Trump of what he’d said about the magazine only last April.
As a result of so forcefully speaking out against one candidate, NR publisher Jack Fowler reported they’ve been “disinvited” from co-hosting the February 25 GOP debate in Houston. Fowler wrote, “We expected this was coming. Small price to pay for speaking the truth about The Donald.”

ISIS attacks in California and Paris may be just the beginning of an unprecedented plot to bring America to its knees by targeting our nation's scandalously vulnerable electric grid, warn officials at the Pentagon and FBI.

Why? Because terrorist groups like ISIS realize they can't beat us with brute military force on the conventional battlefield. We're way too strong for that.

But when the electric grid fails, it will be like watching America have a heart attack right before your eyes.

It's like when the heart stops pumping... everything shuts down and the patient flat lines.

Our great country would be crippled in a matter of minutes, without our enemies having to fire a single bullet.

It's a frightening idea... and worst of all, it may already have begun to unfold:

ISIS terrorists are already inside our country. Former CIA official Dr. Peter Pry warns, "There is an imminent threat from ISIS to the national electric grid and not just to a single U.S. city." Dr. Pry says that attacks on just 9 of the nation's 55,000 electrical substations could result in nationwide blackouts for up to 18 months.

The government is woefully unprepared. It seems like the government has been fixated on taking more & more away from people who worked hard to earn it, while doing virtually nothing to secure our nation's infrastructure. They've ignored dire warnings from experts about the grid's vulnerability to physical, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and cyber-attack by ISIS and other terrorist groups.

"Our death toll would be staggering" reports FOXNews. We've all been fine when the power goes out for a few hours and even days, but an extended blackout would be devastating. Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy predicts that "... should the power go out and stay out for over a year, 9 out of 10 Americans would likely perish."

Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. Your life would be frozen in time right at the moment the power fails. Lights all over the country would go out, throwing people into total darkness.

Without access to a generator, your fridge, electric range and microwave would be dead. All the food in your fridge and freezer would spoil.

Your well couldn't pump any fresh water into your house. And even if you don't have a well, a total grid failure means no fresh water to drink, cook, or clean with.

You wouldn't be able to operate your radio or TV, or charge your cell phone, so you'd feel isolated and cut off from your friends and family.

Sadly, this is NOT science fiction or some crazy doomsday theory...

Veteran news anchor Ted Koppel just wrote a book called Lights Out that details this exact scenario. And CENTCOM General Lloyd Austin says, "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

That's why many Americans are taking matters into their own hands and are securing their own solar powered generator.

Solar generators are a smart choice because they produce an endless supply of life-saving electricity when you need it most - and without gas, fumes or noise.

Our top recommendation in portable solar generators is the new Patriot Power Generator 1500.

The Patriot Power Generator 1500 is a breakthrough device that generates up to 1,500 continuous watts of clean, quiet, and free renewable power.

That's enough to power lights for safety and comfort, your computer, TV, cell phone, and even small appliances like a small freezer or critical medical device that will sustain your family during a power outage.

You can see a live demo of it in action here

Imagine how much peace of mind you'll have right away when you get your own generator. Because if a crisis hits and your family asks, "When will the power come back on?" you'll calmly reassure them that they're safe and they will have plenty of electricity to power the critical items.

You'll be able to power lights... preserve food... recharge cell phones and computers... and keep critical medical devices going. Your home will be a little island of light and warmth, even if it is dark everywhere else.

Listen, nobody can predict the future. None of us know exactly when or how an attack on our electrical grid will hit.

But from everything we see, it could be soon and it could be devastating.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Over 20 conservative leaders published a piece in the National Review urging other conservatives to speak out against Trump, an effort led by National Review editor Rich Lowry who spoke out on "The Kelly File" Thursday night.

"If you are truly are a conservative, you believe in ideas and principles...they are basically afterthoughts to Donald Trump," Lowry said.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

President Barack Obama's address to Congress was less about the state of the union than the state of the presidency. And the state of this presidency is spent.

The signs of intellectual exhaustion were everywhere. Consider just three. After taking credit for success in Syria, raising American stature abroad and prevailing against the Islamic State -- one claim more surreal than the next -- Obama was forced to repair to his most well-worn talking point: "If you doubt America's commitment -- or mine -- to see that justice is done, just ask Osama bin Laden."

Really? Five years later, that's all you've got?

Indeed, it is. What else can Obama say? Talk about Crimea? Cite Yemen, Libya, Iraq, the South China Sea, the return of the Taliban?

"Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office," Obama boasted. Surveys, mind you. As if superpower influence is a Miss Universe contest. As if the world doesn't see our allies adrift, our enemies on the march and our sailors kneeling, hands behind their heads, in front of armed Iranians, then forced to apologize on camera.

On the domestic side, Obama's agenda was fairly short, in keeping with his lame-duck status. It was still startling when he worked up a passion for a great "new moonshot": curing cancer.

Is there a more hackneyed national-greatness cliché than the idea that if we can walk on the moon ... ? Or a more hackneyed facsimile of vision than being "the nation that cures cancer"? Do Obama's speechwriters not know that it was Richard Nixon who first declared a war on cancer -- in 1971?

But to see just how bare is the cupboard of ideas of the nation's most vaunted liberal visionary, we had to wait for the stunning anachronism that was the speech finale. It was designed for inspiration and uplift. And for some liberal observers, it actually worked. They were thrilled by the soaring tones as Obama called for, yes, a new politics -- a post-partisan spirit of mutual understanding, rational discourse and respect for one's opponents.

Why, it was hope and change all over again. You'd have thought we were back in 2008.

Or even further back to 2004, when Obama electrified the nation with his Democratic convention speech: "There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

Tuesday night, Obama did an undisguised, almost phrase-for-phrase reprise of that old promise. Earnestly, he urged us to "see ourselves not, first and foremost, as black or white, or Asian or Latino, not as gay or straight, immigrant or native born, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans first."

On cue, various commentators were moved by this sermon summoning our better angels. Good grief. I can understand falling for this 12 years ago. But now? A cheap self-quotation, a rhetorical mulligan, from a man who had two presidential terms to act on that transformative vision and instead gave us the most divisive, partisan, tendentious presidency since Nixon.

Rational discourse and respect for one's opponents? This is a man who campaigned up and down the country throughout 2011 and 2012 saying that he cares about posterity, Republicans only about power.

The man who accused opponents of his Iran treaty of "making common cause" with Iranians "chanting death to America."

The man who, after Paul Ryan proposed a courageous, controversial entitlement reform, gave a presidential address -- with Ryan, invited by the White House, seated in the first row -- calling his ideas un-American.

In a final touch of irony, Obama included in his wistful rediscovery of a more elevated politics an expression of reverence for, of all things, how "our founders distributed power between ... branches of government." This after years of repeatedly usurping Congress' legislative power with unilateral executive orders and regulations on everything from criminal justice to climate change to immigration (already halted by the courts).

There is wisdom to the 22nd Amendment. After two terms, presidents are spent. Nothing shows it like a State of the Union valedictory repeating the hollow promises of the yesteryear candidate.

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

By Marshall Frank
All the news is about the San Bernardino massacre, of course, because it occurred on American soil.

With the advent of additional Islamist refugees swarming into western regions, including North America, we can expect these attacks to accelerate.

Radical Islam is a global problem. It is not about a few nice people who were suddenly “radicalized.” This is not just a religion; this is a culture, this is an ideology, this is a form of government and this is a movement that is gaining momentum…and we (Americans) are in the crosshairs. Meanwhile, all our president and Attorney General can worry about is the backlash against Muslims while ISIS, al Qaeda and other terror groups become better financed, better equipped and more emboldened.

Do not let presidential propaganda cloud your heads by insulting our intelligence, saying these people are not Islamic. ISIS, and all the other terror organizations, are absolutely Islamic based. We are doing a terrible job.

When a house is infected with cockroaches, you don’t get rid of them by killing a few here and there. You must kill the nest.

This is not being perpetrated by a few radicals. Rather, they are numbered in the millions and they exist in most countries of the free world, not only Islamic countries. They have a sophisticated communications network. They have leadership. They have multi-millions of dollars that keeps flooding the terror network.

The organized murder machine has randomly executed over 27,300 acts of terror in the last 14 years. It doesn’t matter who we catch, who we kill, who we prosecute or who we expose.

They keep coming, just like those cockroaches. And when we kill one or two, we claim a false victory. Osama bin Laden’s death means nothing, ZERO – other than symbolism. It has deterred nothing.

Check out www.thereligionofpeace.com and follow the body count, most of whom are innocent Muslims, people of their own “religion.”